Share Article

With news of an Elementary school teacher being fired for sexting a pre-teen student circulating in St. Joseph County, uKnow.com provides parents with what they need to know to prevent this from happening to their child.

Before your child is allowed a phone, he or she should be well-aware of any pre-established house rules.

Arlington, VA (PRWEB)October 25, 2012

According to South Bend Tribune, a Penn-Harris-Madison Elementary teacher named Eric West has been fired and charged with sending sexually explicit texts to a 12-year-old student.

In light of this news, uKnow.com, makers of the online child safety product uKnowKids, wants to offer sexting resources and tips to residents of Mishawaka, Indiana and surrounding areas so parents can better protect their children from sexting incidents like this one.

uKnow.com has put together a resources page for sexting that can be found at http://www.uknowkids.com/sexting/. This page includes infographics, tip sheets, and blog entries about sexting prevention and other ways to keep your children safe from predators online and on mobile phones. These resources will be very helpful for parents in Mishawaka and surrounding areas. uKnow.com wants to make sure that the community of Mishawaka can keep young students safe and prevent another incident like this from happening --- with education comes prevention.

uKnow.com’s own co-founder’s son had a scary incident stemming from an online and mobile phone encounter. Since that time, Tim Woda has made it his mission to educate himself about internet and mobile safety and spread the lessons he learned to as many parents as possible. He feels strongly that every parent should be aware of their child’s online and mobile activities so stories like his and so many others never have to happen again.

Tim offers these tips for parents to prevent sexting and the sharing of inappropriate pictures:

Understand the technology that your child is using. Be familiar with all the functions of the technology devices your child is using on their phones, including social network sites, gaming systems, chat sites, etc. Some of these could have messaging and photo-sharing options that you might not even know existed.

Communicate house rules. Before your child is allowed a phone, he or she should be well-aware of any pre established house rules. Discuss your expectations for mobile behavior and the consequences for failing to meet those expectations, but also discuss the potential legal and social repercussions of sending inappropriate pictures or spreading them online, whether they are of your child or not.

Be a vigilant parent. Know who your child is talking to and who is trying to talk to them. The more information you have about their interactions on their phone, the better equipped you will be to interfere if anything dangerous should happen. Parental monitoring systems such as uKnowKids are a great way to help out with this task if you think it is too overwhelming.

There are lessons that every parent and child need to learn from the sexting incident in Mishawaka, Indiana, and Tim and his family know about them firsthand. Tim is open to speaking more about his story and the lessons he learned so parents will take notice and keep their children safe online. If you are interested in speaking with Tim or want more information about sexting prevention, email Callie at charris(at)uknow(dot)com.

About uKnow.com

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Arlington, VA., uKnow.com is the only company that offers a parental intelligence system available for both private-label and consumer use. uKnow.com powers the world’s leading Parental Intelligence Systems by working to help educate parents and protect vulnerable loved ones from internet dangers, including child predators, sexting, and cyberbullying. The company’s technology provides parents with a bird’s eye view of what is going on in their child’s social and digital worlds and arms them with unique tools to protect the safety and privacy of their kids. You can find uKnow.com on Twitternat twitter.com/uKnow_com, on Facebook at facebook.com/uKnow.com, and on the company parenting blog http://www.uknowkids.com/blog.